And while Schumacher was talking about economics and the value of decentralized systems you just need to scan the pages of Tiny House Blog to see that bigger isn't always better.

Concurrently Vancouver is home to one of the world's most insane real estate markets. There is a rich vein of online lampoonery devoted to categorizing the latest excess. All it takes is five minutes online to find a 56-year-old, 1,800 square foot home on a 33-foot wide lot that is listed at $1.19 million. In February 2014 in Vancouver the average price of single-family home was a cool $932,000.

A laneway home is a small detached home built on a single-family lot facing the lane or alley. They run in size from 500 to 1,000 square feet and they can only be used for rental or family occupancy and can't be sold separately from the house. They're also called granny suites, carriage homes or in-law suites. Laneway homes are, relatively speaking, tiny homes.

"Density is critical because it's this one tool that gives you lots of benefits. So it's been shown for a long time that people living in dense, walkable neighborhoods actually use a lot less energy for getting around," says Bryn Davidson, founder of the energy efficient laneway homebuilder Lanefab.

"But it also means that you can support local businesses, you can afford to provide transit. You can have all those kind of public amenities like parks and all sorts of other things that come with having a lot of people concentrated in one place. It also makes for a really vibrant neighborhood and so I think once people get used to this idea of living in a dense, vibrant, walkable neighborhood, it actually becomes kind of addictive."

* This 1,000 sq. foot Lanefab home on Dumfries Street looks good in the alley and at EnerGuide 90 it's one of the best rated and most energy efficient homes in Vancouver. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

Just after the economic downturn of 2008 the home business was tough, but Bryn Davidson saw the laneway housing laws coming and built his business around it. It was a big risk but it also fit very nicely his philosophy on life, urban development and sense of community.

Standing in the beautiful 1,000 sq. foot Lanefab home belonging to Petto Chan on Dumfries Street in Vancouver, Davidson explains his design philosophy:

"In small space design one of the key things to do is get rid of all those redundant spaces or circulation areas. So the hallways, if it all possible we try to get rid of all the hallways. We also try to make it such that every space kind of is doing multiple functions."

Why are people building laneway homes? Davidson typically runs into three different customers. A third do it for the rental income. Another third do it to create additional family space for either grown up children or aging parents. And the final third do it to downsize, they live in the laneway home and rent out the original bigger home.

Petto Chan is the owner of the laneway home we toured. They built the house on their parent's lot and it was the only way they could afford to live in a home in Vancouver. The house is so popular that Chan frequently ends up giving impromptu tours to complete strangers.

"It's almost on a weekly basis, to the point where the only one complaint is that we need to keep the place clean all the time because we get so many visitors," says Chan.

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Bryn Davidson of Lanefab Homes is the designer of this laneway Energuide 90 home on Dumfries Street in Vancouver, BC. It’s an innovative way of adding affordable housing in Vancouver that’s catching on. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

Behind the traffic circle, a home and laneway home is under construction in the Douglas Park area of Vancouver, it’s a strategy to encourage affordable housing in Vancouver. The mini traffic circle calms traffic and allows bicycle to flow through and it’s just part of an environmentally friendly development strategy. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

This 1,000 sq. foot Lanefab home on Dumfries Street looks good in the alley and at EnerGuide 90 it's one of the best rated and most energy efficient homes in Vancouver. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

Petto Chan built this 1,000 sq. foot laneway home on his parent’s property on Dumfries Street in Vancouver. Laneway homes are an affordable option in a market where the average home price is just shy of one million dollars. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

The living space of this laneway home is integrated with both the kitchen and the backyard. With the smaller square footage every bit of space must be functional. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

Petto Chan in his office with a view to the alley from his laneway home designed to make very efficient use of space. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

Bryn Davidson of Lanefab Homes shows how the washer and dryer are built right into the home's master bathroom, once again making great use of space. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

To make efficient use of space the hallways are incorporated into the rooms as is the case with Petto Chan's daughter's room. She even had a say in the design of her room. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

Bryn Davidson stands on the balcony outside the master bedroom overlooking the alley and yes, there is another laneway home across the alley. About 1,000 laneway homes have been built in Vancouver since zoning rules change to allow them. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

Bryn Davidson and his business partner Mat Turner of Lanefab Homes in front, or perhaps in back of one of their early laneway home projects in Vancouver. In this case the owner downsized and moved into his laneway home and rented out the main house. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures